IToS
by Metamorpha
Summary: Two best friends are transported into the world of Tales of Symphonia with the help of a knock-off ipod. As the journey starts, will their friendship stand tough? Or will the pressure of winning the game tear them apart?
1. Prologue

_**WARNING**_: This story contains self-inserts, blatant Mary Sues, and little to no plotline. If you do not care for any of those things, please click the little "back" button at the top of your screen for something more worth your reading pleasure. However, if you DO enjoy those things, or are merely curious at how bad this train wreck will be, please continue.

* * *

Prologue

Ramen

A self-insert is a Mary Sue, no exceptions. If you have put yourself into the story you have broken one of the greatest laws of the fandom's canon universe. You don't belong there, you _know_ you don't belong there and yet you still continue to write about your heroic deeds about saving the hero, defeating the evil and winning the guy, all while having super-special powers, dazzling looks, and perfect hair.

Yup, no one wants to read about your stupid Sue, so why write it? You won't get any praise. You're character isn't so special. Besides, self-insert characters are for pre-pubescent girls who have unrealistic expectations about life. You only write one to be paired up with your favorite character and will do anything for that to happen.

And I mean anything, even if it involves killing the original love interest off, stopping something important from happening, or the ever famous "self-sacrifice" that will make any character think that you are nothing but good.

So, why should you still read this? You probably shouldn't. We really aren't all that different from any other Mary Sue self-inserts. Though, we do like to think that we have better grammar than others, but that's just wish fulfillment.

Maybe if I tell you a little about us then you'll be curious enough to read the story. Or not. Whatever you want. It's not like we're forcing you to read it.

Stripes is a fourteen going on fifteen girl who just entered her freshman year in high school. Before entering high school she had an awkward social life and only a few friends who split up once the new year started.

She met me, Ramen, in drama class, where I convinced her to join the schools Anime Club. For a few months I thought of her as "Freshman Fungus"- Annoying at first, but it grows on you.

She was, and still is to this day, my best friend. She was there for me through all the drama of high school. We where a strange pair; whoever heard of a junior and freshman get along?

I really could not get this girl to stop talking at first, especially when she talked about one thing and one thing only- Tales of Symphonia. But since I really didn't have anything else to talk about I listened to her as she spoke of Lloyd, Kratos, exspheres, Desians, and half-elves.

I swear, she brainwashed me!

I have never been a gamer. The only video game I have ever finished all the way through was pokemon, and I never even filled up the stupid pokedex! I don't know HOW she did it, but within the course of four months she was able to convince me that Tales of Symphonia was the greatest game ever. And somehow, I started to believe her.

It wasn't long before I had picked out my favorite guy, started playing it at her house and buying my own copy online. In only two days of nonstop play I made it the Asgard Ranch. (Though the only reason I even got _that_ far was because we had played to Palmacosta and I had a walkthrough on my lap for everything after… don't tell her though.)

But our story begins at the start of the summer. All it took was an online contest, a strange knock-off ipod, and a phone call.

* * *

Co-written with my friend Stripes. We own nothing.

And yes, we are fully aware that we are Mary Sues. We really don't care. We wrote this for us, those who think it's good, thank you. Those who don't like it- it's all good, you don't have to. Leave your opinions and any critique.


	2. Chapter 1: A Tear Drop

Authors Notes: This story is told from two different points of view- Stripes' and Ramens'. The top of each Chapter will tell you who is speaking.

Disclaimer: I Own Nothing

* * *

Stripes

I dug through a box of old fabric. "It was in here somewhere…"

"Stripes, are you sure it's in there?" That was Ramen, my best friend.

I had started my day calling Ramen over to my house. We had decided to create costumes of some of our characters we had made up. We where just putting the finishing touches on our costumes and they where looking great!

"Of course I'm sure! I remember thinking I was gonna throw it out!" I said.

"That's… reassuring." Ramen sighed.

"A-ha!" I called. I was halfway inside the huge box, and I had found what I was looking for. I help up a small brown pouch. "Found it!"

"Cool." said Ramen.

"I shifted my weight to get out of the box. Left, right, left… right…. Left… "Ramen… help?"

Ramen laughed a bit, and I heard her get up off my bed. "You're pathetic." She giggled, and grabbed my waist. She gave me a tug, and the entire box toppled over,

"Waah!" I yelped. I shook some scraps of fabric off my head, and glared at Ramen. "You are even more pathetic."

Unfortunately, Ramen knew the one thing she could do to stop my glaring. My one weakness was my favorite character from my favorite videogame.

"Oh." She smiled devilishly. "I just remembered a picture I found on D.A. It was of Kratos without a shirt on!"

Oh noes! My face turned red, and hot. It got hot so fast that my face was practically burning under my skin. "Augh… crap!" Then came the build up of air in my lungs. Somehow, the oxygen in my lungs expanded until I couldn't help it- I had to scream! I knew I would anger the neighbors if I made too much noise, so I ran and grabbed the silk-covered pillow from my bed.

I pressed the cool material to my face. It felt good, soothing the burning flames. From there, it was simple: scream into the pillow, and beg Ramen to make it stop. "Waaaai! I'm sorry! I'm sor- Waaaai!"

Ramen got a good laugh, but she finally set me best way to do that is to use my most hater character in Tales of Symphonia, my favorite video game. "Zelos in a speedo" she said.

"Ugh! Eww!" I yelled, but my face cooled, and my breathing returned to normal. I sighed.

"You're evil Rame,n. You really could kill me like that. You have no clue how possible that really is!"

"Don't worry." said Ramen. "I wouldn't let that happen."

I dared to glare again. "Really?" I growled. We glared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Come on." I said when we had calmed down. "Let's finish up these costumes and try them on!"

*~*~*

I spun in front of my mirror. "They're perfect! We really _do _look just like out characters!" I hopped up and down a few times. "I even found that old blue yo-yo, and my dads dagger!"

"Yeah! And I've perfected my home-made slingshot!" said Ramen. "We really have every detail in order, everything!"

I smiled. "We're awesome!"

Ramen laughed. "Yeah! Hey, let's have some celebration music! We can listen to this new ipod thing. It's called an I-ToS, and it has all the Tales of Symphonia battle music and theme songs. It even has applications like character quotes and pictures of costume designs and how to draws programmed into it. Whoever made this must have _really_ loved the game. Even more than us!"

My heart skipped a beat. "Is there a baby Lloyd how-to-draw?!"

"I'm not sure, I haven't even turned it on yet. I was waiting to show it to you."

"Awesome!" I said, reaching for her bag. "Where is it?"

"Hey, don't just go through my stuff!"

Ignoring Ramens' words I pulled out a small, white object- an ipod themed after ToS. Looking over it, I noticed it didn't have the Apple corporation logo anywhere on it.

"I got the newest model, too. Speakers, headphones, recording function, and a touch screen!"

"Wow…" I breathed, running my fingers over the smooth surface, until I found something strange at the bottom. It looked like an exsphere with a tear-shaped key-crest. "Huh? What's this?"

"What does it look like?" smiled Ramen.

"Well, and exsphere."

"And what is an exsphere…?"

"A power source?"

"Exactly!" she said. She reached over and held onto the I-ToS with her left hand, and she poked the exsphere with her right. "Power button!"

The exsphere lit up with a cool blue light. "Oh, cool-ness!" I smiled, but the light got bigger and brighter. I squinted my eyes, but the light continued growing until I had to squeeze my eyes shut tight. Even then the light hurt my eyes. I wondered faintly if this light would just swallow me up, and make me disappear.

This is… What the hell? It won't go away!

After what seemed like an eternity, a strange weightless feeling came over me, and the light finally faded. I felt like I was floating. My bed had disappeared from under me, that was for sure.

I guess I should upen my eyes… But I suddenly fell on something cold and hard.

"Ow!" my eyes flew open.

"Oww…!" grunted Ramen, beside me.

I looked around. Definitely not my room.The walls where all tan and brown, and the room was circular with a huge platform in the middle and something glowing in the middle of that. There was a strange glowing blue circle on the other side of the room, there was another strange object spinning inside of that.

The I-ToS was floating in the air between Ramen and I. It still glowed faintly, and when the glow finally disappeared completely, the I-ToS fell. Neither me, nor Ramen, had very quick reflexes and we where both a bit dazed and confused, so the I-ToS landed on the floor between us with a quite un-heroic ker-CHUNK.

I finally realized where we were. I can't say I understood, because I didn't think I could understand anything at that point, but I _did_ know where we were.

"Ramen-chan…" I whispered. It seemed too quiet, like you shouldn't make a sound or you'll break something. "Do you know where we are?"

"Uh, aren't we in one of those rooms you described to me out of ToS…?" she asked.

I nodded. "The… Martel Temple… The one in Iselia."

"How is that even _possible_?"

"I don't think it is." I replied.

"Huh…? But, we're here so…"

"I don't think how we _got_ here is the question. We should focus on how to get back. Wait, let me think for a second." I stood up and began pacing. "Colette's Cruxis Crystal is still here, so no one has come in here yet. We could take the warp circle back, but the door will be sealed."

"Sealed?!" Ramen screeched. "As is, we can't get out?!"

"Calm down, will you?" I sighed. I knew I should be panicking, but I was very calm for some reason. That calmness gave me a tiny ray of hope.

Maybe I know how to get out. I just have to think.

"Oh! The Sorcerers' Ring!"

As soon as the words where out, the screen on the I-ToS lit up. But luckily it was in a normal way this time.

"Huh…?" wondered Ramen. She picked up the I-ToS and started pressing buttons. I wasn't good with technology, so I just kept thinking.

"But wait… we can't get to the Sorcerers' Ring"

"Ahh!" Ramen yelped, and a tiny fireball flew out of the I-ToS towards me! I jumped out of the way just in time. The fireball flew right passed me.

"Waah! Ramen, are you trying to kill me?!"

"Sorry." Ramen shrugged.

Suddenly, the little lightbulb in my head clicked on. "Ramen, which button did you press?" I asked.

"This one." She replied pushing the same button as before.

"Waah!" I jumped out of the way again. "Ramen!" I growled.

"Oops."

I sighed, "_Show_ me!" I walked over to her and she pointed to a button. I snatched the I-ToS from her. "Come." I smiled, holding out my hand to help her up. "We need to get out of here."

Ramen nodded and took my hand. "So how the hell do we get out?"

"The I-ToS works just like the Sorcerers' Ring. We'll use it to break the seal on the door, and then leave. From there we can figure out everything else."

"Alright." Ramen smiled. "Let's go.

We stepped onto the warp circle, and we appeared in front of the sealed door. "As I thought." I smirked. I pointed the I-ToS at the seal, and pressed the button Ramen had indicated. A tiny fireball hit it and the door opened. "Heh heh. Admit it, I'm awesome!"

Ramen sighed. "You're awesome… I found the button though."

Ignoring her last comment, I walked down the steps. "Hmm… I wonder if the front door will be open…"

"What?!" Ramen demanded.

I laughed. "Don't worry, the priests come by every once and a while."

"Wh… wh… _huh_?" she panicked.

I laughed even harder. "Hehe, don't worry! I'm just joking!"

Ramen didn't calm down until we where out the door. It was much more beautiful than the game had ever given credit for. The long green grass flowed in the wind like and ocean of green. A short way off, a boy in red was rolling in the grass, playing with a green and white creature. I'd know that dog anywhere!

"Noishe!" I yelled. The boy and the dog looked up in unison. "Ramen, it's Noishe!" I jumped off the side of the steps and I ran through the ankle high grass. I hugged Noishe around the neck, and I scratched behind his ears. "Noishe!" I smiled.

"Who are you?" wondered the boy. He has a flashy red costume with a crap-load of white buttons. His brown hair was spiked up, and he _definitely_ had his father's eyes.

"Lloyd!"

* * *

And so it begins.

When Stripes and I were brain-storming on how it would begin I came up with the idea of a mp3 player. To keep the rules of I'm going to abridge this story a bit and edit it so that it doesn't have any actual lyrics but I will get something set up so that you all can see the original story.

I-ToS: A Mary Sue's best friend.


	3. Chapter 2: The Confusion of Ramen

Not much to say for this chapter; I've had this written for a while but was just being lazy typing it up. Also- this chapter is short. I wrote this before I really started playing ToS.

Disclaimer: If I haven't owned Tales of Symphonia for the past few chapters, what makes you think I own it now?

* * *

Ramen

Now, how the I-ToS first came into my possession is a pretty weird thing. It had started out when I saw a picture of a Tales of Symphonia Game Cube. There was an online contest going on and the winner won the Game Cube.

I don't know what imposed me to enter- I _never_ enter online contests like that. I'm usually not one to give out my address out online. But this one time I gave into temptation and entered my name into the contest.

Long story short: I didn't win the Game Cube. But I _did_ win second prize.

*~*~*

Lloyd? Noishe? What the hell is going on?! I thought, staring at the surroundings. Is this really Symphonia? Impossible! That was a game!

But it all looks so real… I looked around, taking in the view.

"Noishe!" called out Stripes suddenly. My eyes darted to the direction she was darting to. In the clearing rolling around in the grass, a large dog-like looking creature was playing in the grass. I hadn't played ToS much, but I knew that had to be Noishe.

Ok, this is really weird… That was the understatement of the century. Stripes ran over to Noishe and threw her arms around him.

Stripes, didn't your parents ever teach you not to run up to strange animals?

"Noishe!" she cooed to the slightly startled animal. I stumbled after her, trying to catch up.

"Who are you?" asked the boy clad in red. I jumped a bit hearing the voice. Lloyds' voice always confused me when I heard it.

Gah, stupid voice actors. I thought. Always doubling up on rolls… Making me think I hear Robin when it's really Lloyd.

"Lloyd!" smiled Stripes at him. Her arms where still wrapped around Noishe who didn't seem to mind to protest at the attention. Lloyd seemed startled that she knew his name.

Gee… I wonder why. I thought to myself sarcastically.

"Who are you?" he asked again, more suspicious this time. Stripes merely smirked.

"Who are you to ask for _my_ name?" she asked back. She looked so proud of herself for thinking up such an _original_ response to the question.

"H-hey! That's my line!" stuttered a now flustered Lloyd. I let out a small laugh- whether this was real or not, it was definitely amusing,

My laugh seemed to draw his attention to me. "You guys better tell me who you are." He said resting his hand on one of his swords. He didn't sound like he was really threatening us, he sounded more annoyed than anything but I didn't want to take any chances. Those swords of his may be wooden but if they could kill a monster, I didn't even wanna _think_ about what they could do to me or Stripes.

Stripes laughed a bit. "Heh heh, don't worry we're not here to cause trouble." She explained. "I'm Stripes, and this is my friend Ramen." She pointed at me. Poor Lloyd looked even more confused than ever.

"Stripes? Ramen? What kind of names are those?" he asked Stripes.

"Well, they're not out real names, technically…" she started. I took this as my turn to speak up.

"But we can't tell you our real names." I started in my most official voice. "We're from a foreign country on a mission." I was lying through my teeth, but there was no way we could explain that we where from an alternate universe, and Stripes was being suspicious enough for the two of us. "We _would_ tell you our name, but then we might get in trouble with headquarters."

Stripes glared at me, probably mad that I had confused the boy so much. But something told me that it would be safer to lie.

And I have to admit…. It was damn fun making all that up.

"Um… can you at least tell me where you're from?" Lloyd asked still confused as hell. Stripes cut in before I could make up some story about an uncharted island just south of the equator.

"We can't tell you that right now." She said. "But maybe one day we'll be able to tell you."

Lloyd nodded. "Ok… but why are you here?"

"I told you, we're on a mission." I said again, adjusting my glasses. "But before headquarters will really give it to us, we need to learn how to fight." I pulled out my slingshot holding it carefully. I had made it myself, and it was threatening to break already. "I'm a sniper in training, and Stripes here is a mid to long range fighter."

"we're traveling from village to village looking for people to train us." Piped up Stripes, finally playing along.

"Well," said Lloyd. "I know everything about swords! I'll be happy to train you!"

Lloyd, your ego shall be your down fall. I thought. Let's try this…

"Wow! You must be an amazing fighter!" I said to him in my best kiss-up voice. I could feel Stripes giving me a 'Where-are-you-going-with-this?' look. Lloyd just seemed happy.

"Not to brag or anything but I'm the best swordsman in the village!" Lloyd, you're the _only_ swordsman in the village! "Hey, where are you guys staying?" he asked, a bit excitedly.

"We just arrived here, so no where at the moment." Replied Stripes.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that we'll be able to find a place for you guys. Follow me!"

"Ramen," whispered Stripes. "How did you _do_ that?"

I smiled a bit. "You're not the only one who can suck up."

* * *

To explain a bit- Stripes and I started writing this story before I had gotten my own copy of Tales of Symphonia so I hadn't played much when I wrote this- hence the short crappy chapter. I am happy to say that I now have the game for myself and am at the Temple of Darkness in Tethe'alla.


	4. Chapter 3: The First Night

A/N: Thank you all so much for the kind reviews! Now on with the story.

* * *

Chapter 3

Stripes

I followed behind Ramen, glaring at the back of her head the whole way. What's up with her? As much as I love this world, I just wanna figure out how we got here, and… That's when it occurred to me. I _did_ want to find out how we got there, but under no circumstances, did I want to leave again. There was just one thing I simply _had_ to do, and then I could die happy.

"Hey, Ramen," I eventually said, "If this is ToS, that means that… that… K-kratos is… is… K-kratos!" I could feel my cheeks turning red and my face began to burn. This always happened when I was fangirl-ing. I swear, It'll kill me one day.

"Kratos is Kratos?" said Ramen smirking at me, enjoying my pain.

"Shut it!" I exclaimed. "I want to meet him Ramen! As many stories as we've written, I have to meet Kratos! I want to touch his hair, and then I can be _dead_ for the next ten years of my _life_!"

Ramen laughed. "What happens after ten years?"

"I turn into an Angel and live with Kr-"

"Spoiler alert! Spoiler Alert! Stripes, they don't _know_ that yet!" Ramen panicked.

"Oh, yeah… thanks for that." Brain gotz dumb.

"I don't get what you guys are saying." Wondered Lloyd. "What's 'toss' and who's Kratos?"

For a moment, I wanted to spaz. I had played through the game so many times, I was so used to seeing Kratos. It hadn't occurred to me that there was ever point where Lloyd didn't know who Kratos was. It made me sad, for Lloyd, the amazing little idiot hero, the main character of Tales of Symphonia, to not know his own father.

I fumbled for a lie, and had to settle for the best one I could grab. "ToS is what people of our religion call this… _part_ of the world."

"You don't believe in Martel?" Lloyd practically gasped. "What else is there?'

"We have our beliefs." I said, pretending to be uninterested in the subject. "We don't practice them outside our… village though."

"Oh," said Lloyd, holding his hand up in the air like a sort of gun, pointing his finger to the sky. Ramen and I call this his "smart pose". "So, it's like that fairy tale about the hidden village of ninjas. What was it called…?"

"Mizuho?" I wondered.

"Yeah!" Lloyd smiled. "Hey, wait. Don't tell me it actually exists, and you guys…"

"No." I laughed. "Good try, though."

"What's Meezoo-he?" asked Ramen quietly to me, trying to keep it between us, but it was clear that Lloyd heard it too. He was looking at her strange, probably wondering how she couldn't have heard of it before.

I cleared my throat and nudged Ramen a bit. "It's a legend that _everyone_ in Sym- er, Sylvarrant knows!"

She managed to catch on. "Oh yeah. That one! Yeah, with the village and the… ninjas! Yeah…" she nodded.

I face palmed.

*~*~*

When we reached Iselia, Lloyd told Noishe to make his way around the village.

"Lloyd!" called a voice. I looked up to see a girl with long, blonde hair running towards Lloyd.

"Colette!" Lloyd smiled, running up to her and giving her a hug. "How did the trip go? Did you see anything cool like a ghost or a werewolf?"

"Well, no," Colette smiled, "but I did see a cute doggie. I named him Kitty!"

"You named a dog Kitty?" Lloyd laughed.

"Well, she acted kinda like that girl at school, Kitty. Just like Pepe acts like that kidd, Pepe!"

"Y… you _do_ know Kitty is a cat, and cats and dogs fight." Lloyd said.

Trying logic on Colette? He really is an idiot hero.

Colette laughed. "Silly, Kitty and Pepe are best friends! They do their homework together!"

"Huh?" wondered Lloyd. "Dogs have homework?"

"Hm? Oh. Well, they might." Replied Colette.

"I feel sorry for those dogs." Lloyd sighed.

"Cheer up." Smiled Colette. "I'm sure the dogs have easier homework than us."

"What do you suppose is on it?" Wondered Lloyd.

"Colette giggled. "Maybe…"

"Ramen, do you get the feeling…" I sighed.

"Yup." Said Ramen. "They completely forgot we where here."

I gave a little chuckle. "I doubt Colette ever even noticed.

"Heh heh, yeah." Ramen smiled.

To our grace, though, a young boy with long silver hair, and a kendama on his belt came walking over.

Genis! My mind screamed, but I held it in this time and settled for a polite smile.

"Awww…" Ramen breathed beside me.

"Pedo." I whispered. She glared at me and I smirked.

"I don't wanna hear that in _this_ game." She whispered back, and we couldn't help but smile. Genis ignored Lloyd and Colettes' conversation which was getting crazier by the second.

"Who are you two?" he asked. That seemed to get the others attention, too.

"Oh," Colette smiled. Are they friends of yours Lloyd?"

Not really. I thought to say, but Lloyd beat me to it.

"Yeah." He said.

My smile grew. Lloyd, _the_ Lloyd Irving said I was his friend!

"They're on a mission, but they don't know how to fight, so they asked me to train them."

Genis started laughing. "Wait. You asked _Lloyd_ to train you? Geez. Listen, if you really want to learn, I can teach you."

"Hey, Genis, what's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd glared.

"Exactly what it sounds like." Replied Genis.

"Shut it!" yelled Lloyd, as he bonked Genis on the head.

"Ow!" whined Genis. "It's true, though."

"Well, if you want I could teach you a few things." Colette smiled. "Genis will have a tough time on his own."

"Colette, not you, too." Sighed Lloyd.

"Hm? What is it Lloyd?" wondered Colette.

Genis smiled. "So, would it be alright if all three of us trained you?"

"Sure!" Ramen and I said in unison.

"Alright," said Lloyd. "All that remains is to get you two a place to stay. Do you have any money?"

Ramen and I looked at each other, shrugged, dug through our pockets, and shook our heads.

Lloyd sighed. "It's getting dark, and you can't make the trip back to dads place if you can't fight. Hey Colette, Genis, do either of you have any extra room?"

"Father is still in Palmacosta, so there's one extra bed in my house." Said Colette.

"Yeah," replied Genis. "Raine's out of town, so I've got an extra bed, too."

"Oh." Said Lloyd. "The professor's out of town? You guys are so lucky!"

*~*~*~

Ramen looked be hind her as we split up to leave. I could tell that she didn't really want to go spent the night at Colettes' house with out me there. Knowing her she would rather camp out than spend the night with a stranger, but things would be easier this way.

"By the way," Genis smiled, as we entered his house, "my name's Genis."

"Alright," I replied. "I'm Stripes."

"Stripes?" wondered Genis. "Is that your real name?"

"No," I smiled. "it's a nickname, but Ramen doesn't seem to want me to let out my real name. This is the name I use for missions."

"Oh, said Genis, closing the door behind us. Then, he became a lot more serious than I has ever seen him in ToS. "You're a half-elf." He said.

"Huh?" I wondered. "I'm pretty sure I'm human…"

"No." Genis replied. "You're a half-elf like me. You have the mana signature that comes from a mixture of elven and human blood. Don't tell me you never knew."

"I… But, there's no elves _or_ half-elves in my wor- er, my village." I panicked.

"How do you know? People there _must_ not know how to tell the difference between humans and half-elves. You can use magic too." He added.

"I can?"

"You never knew?!"

"Look, I've lived quite a sheltered life in my… village. Don't blame me if I don't know how to use magic-y stuffs."

"Ma… Magic-y…?" Genis shook his head. "How do you _not_ know you're a half-elf?! It's impossible! Don't you age slower than everyone else?"

"W-well, no, but-"

"Then everyone in your village must be half-elves, too!" he said excitedly.

"But… but…" I struggled for words. This isn't right! Half-elves don't exist in out world! Wait… I might usually be human, but to live in this world I might have been turned into a half-elf. That makes sense… Twilight sense.

"Did you really never know?" Genis asked again, a little bit calmer now.

"Never." I replied.

Genis sighed. "You _do_ know how people think of half-elves, right?"

I nodded. Half-elves where hated and feared in both worlds because Desians- horrible people who kidnapped humans and forced them to work- where all half-elves. Any half-elf trying to live freely would usually be forced to the edges of society.

"My sister and I have been saying that we are pureblood elves. If you want, I can back you up on that, and you can say you're an elf, so I can teach you magic. It's the least I could do for a fellow half-elf. How about it?"

I smiled. "On one condition."

"What's that?" asked Genis.

I held out my hand, and gave my most sincere smile. "Let's be friends."

Genis smiled and took my hand. "Yeah!" he laughed. "Great friends!"

I nodded. "Yeah."

I looked around the house, which was really more like a large room. Although, that's what _most_ houses in this world where like. My eyes rested on a box with a piece of wood sticking out of it. I looked inside to see a bunch of different colored and sized kendamas.

Genis stood beside me and reached into the box, pulling out the tiniest kendama I had ever seen. It was sloppily made and looked heavy, but Genis held it close, like a beautiful, delicate treasure.

"This was my very first kendama." He smiled. Raine made it for me on her own. We didn't have much money back then, so getting a gift was rare. But on my fifth birthday, I came inside from playing and she had this waiting for me. It made me so happy. Every year after that, I got a new Kendama. I kept every one she got me. When I started learning magic, Raine asked me what kind of weapon I wanted. While I was thinking about it, I was whispering an incantation under my breath, so I wouldn't forget it. I finished the incantation at the same time as the ball hit the pin. I ended up casting fireball and almost set the house on fire. Raine got so angry…" he laughed a bit.

I pulled out the yo-yo from my bag. "I fight with a yo-yo!" I smiled. We both rolled on the floor with laughter.

We played a bunch that night. The thing I hide from most of my friends is just how childish I really am. I love playing with my stuffed animals, hide and seek, fairytales for story time, and best of all- pretend.

I absolutely love pretend game. I can pull off playing three completely different characters at once, and act out the part so convincingly that people have to remind me sometimes that it's just a game.

I'. often ashamed to tell this to anyone my age, so most of my friends end up to be younger than me. It still feels weird to think of Ramen as older than me, although certainly less mature, but I had fun with Genis.

We let our childish side show as we told knock-knock jokes, and compared some of out favorite imaginary adventures. Soon, it was time to let our childish sides rest.

"You know," said Genis, climbing into his little bed, "you're the first half-elf friend I've ever had."

Those words, a direct quote from the game, sparked a memory.

Mithos, the cutest little half-elf I had ever seen, was supposed to befriend Genis, and gain false trust before betraying the group. The memory of the betrayal made my eyes sting with tears that I knew would never come.

"Genis," I gulped, thankful he couldn't see my face in the darkness, "I'll always trust you, and you can trust me. I won't ever let you down, okay?"

"Yeah." Genis's words smiled for him. "We half-elves can always look after each other, right?"

My throat clench a bit, but I took a deep breath. "Mmhmm." Was all I could manage. His trusting words where meant for a horrible villain. Those two would be the happiest best friends if Mithos was really who he pretended to be.

From that night on, I was always a bit more careful. I always knew the effect I could have on the entire world… worlds. How would my friendship and loyalty affect Genis when the time came? Would he join Mithos in the pursuits of Cruxis? And what if I messed up again and ended up _having_ to betray them for one reason or another? Would Genis ever trust me to begin with? If he didn't, the world might have to take a bad, new turn.

Whatever the case, I had no choice but to be extremely careful, and hope for the best.

* * *

A/N: Ok, there's chapter three.

Oh yes and for the line "That makes sense… Twilight sense" it is simply because we feel that sparkly vampires don't make sense. If you are offended by this, please feel free to say that the line says: That makes sense, Twilight Zone sense."

See you next chapter!

Mary Sue Litmus Test score for both Ramen and Stripes based on what is written and things that are being planned: 50 (Woooow, that's high! And that's not including stuff that we haven't planned on yet! XD)


End file.
